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I've used a sat-nav for when I was a field employee and I might be in a different location every day/week. It was a useful tool to find a specific location in a place I had never been. But I sill looked at road signs and checked if I could turn down a road, it might have changed since the sat-nav map I was using.

Gov Kodos wrote:

While that GPS made some poor decisions, lately, I'm sure it has the greatest enthusiasm for its mission.

And I'm sure it enjoyed working with humans, and would continue to do so even if sperated by great distances.

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On the continent of wild endeavour in the mountains of solace and solitude there stood the citadel of the time lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe looking down on the galaxies below sworn never to interfere only to watch.

The article is a little unclear. Was it instructing her to cross the tracks and for some reason her car got stuck? There are plenty of railroad crossings that don't have the arms that come down, but it doesn't look like a proper crossing from the pictures. If it was a rural area it could be more difficult to tell, possibly.

She doesn't sound like a complete idiot. I mean, she realized her mistake, realized she was stuck, and got out of there with her kids. Making a mistake doesn't mean she deserves to die.

I'm with you on this. The article is unclear about a few things. Just because she followed the GPS's directions doesn't mean she's an idiot. The fact that she was using GPS at all suggests that she was unfamiliar with the area; how was she supposed to know that she was going to be crossing an uncrossable railroad track?

People calling her an idiot are acting like they've never made a wrong turn before. At least she had the sense to get everybody out of the car.

I'm with you on this. The article is unclear about a few things. Just because she followed the GPS's directions doesn't mean she's an idiot. The fact that she was using GPS at all suggests that she was unfamiliar with the area; how was she supposed to know that she was going to be crossing an uncrossable railroad track? .

What uncrossable track? It's a perfectly normal crossing. Where the tracks sink into the road... and there are arms and and lights and signs and everything. Look at the picture. A GI Joe toy could drive through it. She turned onto the tracks as if they were a road. That's why she got stuck.

I thought the article made it quite clear, when her sat nav instructed her to turn right she did so right onto the railway tracks. If she had used her eyes she would have noticed that there wasn't a road there on which to turn onto.

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On the continent of wild endeavour in the mountains of solace and solitude there stood the citadel of the time lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe looking down on the galaxies below sworn never to interfere only to watch.

^ Which was the point of my linking to the Office scene, though that was the aftermath.

The GPS told Michael to take an "immediate right turn", which was a lake.

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Rimmer, on what period of history to live in-
“Well, It’d be the 19th century for me, one of Napoleon’s marshals.
The chance to march across Europe with the greatest general of all time and kill Belgians” - (White Hole).

Do Sat navs go wrong, yes of course. It might have an out of date map, or it might have your location yards away from were you actually are. That's why they are driving aids not to be taken as gospel.

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On the continent of wild endeavour in the mountains of solace and solitude there stood the citadel of the time lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe looking down on the galaxies below sworn never to interfere only to watch.

I wonder, historically, how many people had crashes because they were fiddling with a roadmap while driving.

__________________
Rimmer, on what period of history to live in-
“Well, It’d be the 19th century for me, one of Napoleon’s marshals.
The chance to march across Europe with the greatest general of all time and kill Belgians” - (White Hole).